Apply now: 2025 Innovate with nbn Grants Program
3-minute read
Applications are now open for the 2025 Innovate with nbn® Grants Program. We’re on the lookout for game-changing businesses in regional and remote Australia.
Do you have a game-changing regional business that harnesses the benefits of the nbn® network?
If this sounds like you, and you have a product or service which is transforming your industry, then you have the chance to put your business in the running for one of our coveted Innovate with nbn® Grants.
Since 2020, we’ve been on the hunt for regional and remote Australian businesses using the power of the nbn network to deliver innovative products or solutions that improve digital participation, productivity or social outcomes for the regions.
Is yours the next business we're looking for?
Winners making an impact
Since the start of the Innovate with nbn® Grants Program, we’ve received almost 750 applications from right across the country.
This program was made specifically for the bush and, so far, we’ve recognised 70 outstanding finalists and 35 winners, hailing from every state and territory. This includes businesses in Karratha (Western Australia), Barcaldine (Queensland), Armidale (New South Wales) and Blackstone Point (Tasmania).
Each year, we continue to discover regional and remote businesses doing great things – and we know 2025 will be no exception.
Our 2024 winners included:
Grief Connect
Women in Business category winner and overall champion
After becoming a young widow at 38, Michelle Moriarty from Roelands, Western Australia, founded Grief Connect to support others making their way through a difficult time. Providing specialised grief and bereavement services, including counselling and support groups, Grief Connect used the Innovate with nbn® Grants to roll out the Grief Language Project education program online to equip people with strategies to manage grief and support others.
Play the ‘Women in Regional Business and 2024 Innovate with nbn Champion: Grief Connect’ video (duration 2:40) to learn more.
Lola Digital
Indigenous Business category winner
Founded by Kantesha Takai in 2019, Lola Digital is a boutique content and marketing agency based on Waibene (Thursday Island) in Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait). A big believer in not having to leave country to work, Lola Digital used its Innovate with nbn® Grant to hire and develop young First Nations people, to help them bridge the digital divide, empower their creatives skills, and get them ready for the digital future.
Play the ‘2024 Innovate with nbn winner 'Indigenous Business' - Lola Digital’ video (duration 2:57) to learn more.
$125,000 in grants up for grabs
An impressive $125,000 in grants is available for eligible regional and remote Australian businesses across seven categories: Agriculture, Arts & Tourism, Education, Health, Indigenous Business, Sport & Recreation, and Women in Regional Business.
That’s right, we've introduced a new category this year, ‘Sport & Recreation’, and have brought ‘Arts & Tourism’ together. We can’t wait to uncover more innovative businesses in these categories this year.
Each category winner will receive a $15,000 grant to help them grow their business in regional Australia, with category winners also in the running for the overall Champion award worth an additional $20,000.
Broadband boosting connectedness
At nbn, we're proud to help Australians live, work and run their businesses wherever they choose.
A research report conducted by Ember Advisors’ researchers, commissioned by NBN Co, found that 76 per cent of nbn users reported having the nbn network at home had a positive impact on their satisfaction with life in FY24.
It found many positive social impacts enabled by connectivity, particularly in regional and remote Australia around accessing employment, education, health services, and social and community connection.
This research reinforces the importance of innovation coming out of regional and remote Australia, where broadband access can significantly improve the way people operate and remain connected with work, study, health and community.
That’s why we’re continuing to invest in regional network upgrades to match the demand, by expanding Fixed Wireless coverage, providing Sky Muster® Plus Premium uncapped plans (subject to fair use policy and shaping), pushing fibre deeper into regional communities, and the recently announced low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology available from mid-2026.
It’s all part of how we’re building for 2030 and beyond, with a focus on delivering resilient, high-capacity digital infrastructure that supports Australia’s economic growth, social inclusion and climate goals, no matter where you're located.
And you can be a part of it.
Ready to apply?
Applications for the 2025 Innovate with nbn® Grants Program are now open, and close at midnight on 12 October 2025.
Finalists will be announced in late October, with the winners revealed at a ceremony in Sydney in November.
Header image: Michelle Moriarty, Grief Connect, Women in Business category winner and overall champion